by Eva Harper
Rush pushed himself off the wall and came to my side, standing halfway behind me.
“They won’t get away with this,” Rush mumbled, his hand resting on my shoulder.
“This is the last straw.” I shook my head sadly.
“What do you mean?” Rush asked, squeezing my shoulder.
“I don’t care anymore.” He bent down, squatting by my chair. “I stuck up for these humans for months, trying to protect them, trying to show everyone that they weren’t the monsters. I can’t anymore. They killed Isla, they killed Kenna’s dad, three of our pack members are dead, Beckett’s in a coma. They don’t deserve to be protected anymore.”
“Sloane, what are you saying?” Rush’s hand settled on my cheek, gently stroking my skin. I could feel my face becoming warm and red.
“I’m saying it’s time. No more death, Rush.” I grabbed the top of his shirt with both hands. “Now, we do something. If that means killing anyone who threatens us, then so be it. I won’t allow another pack member to die because I was trying to be a good person. If we’re all dead, it won’t matter.”
He paused, and a concentrated look settled over him; he looked torn.
“Rush, Beckett’s in a coma.” He sighed and closed his eyes. “That could have been you or me.”
“Okay,” he breathed, opening his eyes. His other hand reached up and took my face between both of his hands. A small smile drifted to his lips, a content smile. “We do this now. We make our move.”
One More Night
“We want you to step in as Beta,” Rush said. I sat on his right side, grinning eagerly at Jonah. Jahida sat next to him, frozen in surprise.
“You’re serious?” Jonah choked out. We nodded happily. “Of course!” he exclaimed. “I would love to; I want to do right by Beckett.”
“We do too.” Rush reached to the side to grab my shaking hands that were thumping on the desk.
“So,” I sang. “Now, we have to tell you about our plan.”
“You have a plan?”
“Of course,” Rush said confidently. “Do you trust that your fearless leaders would lead you into a war with no plan?”
“No.” Jonah laughed, rolling his eyes as the dramatics in Rush’s voice. “I just know it’s only been four days since Beckett…”
“Well, we’ve been working tirelessly, and we have a plan.”
“We’ve been talking with other Alphas, and we’ve all decided on a date.”
“A date?” Jahida looked up, confusion clearly written across her lips.
“Yes,” Rush’s lip hitched. “One day that we all move in. Each group seems to have one or two leaders. We will go to the human towns and demand surrender from those leaders, or we will declare war.”
“We take all the Warriors and Guards.” I kicked my chair back and stood restlessly. “The humans will know nothing of it, there won’t be enough time to formulate any plans or contact other cities. It will be their decision entirely.”
“Okay.” Jonah smirked. We began filling him in on the specifics and creating a plan for surrender and a plan for war.
It took only three more days to inform all Guards and Warriors of the impending raid. I stressed the importance of taking children and those who could not, or would not, fight as hostages. Anyone else who stood with Harrison would be seen as a threat to our pack.
I nervously stood in the front of the packhouse, watching men and women filter into formation. We were moving into the human town, united, and we weren’t leaving without Harrison or his lackeys.
A honey-peach glow from the freshly rained sky lit up our faces. I glanced from one to the next, from old to young, weathered and beautiful, dark and light, and through all of the differences in appearance, hunger was constant. We were tired of uncertainty and paranoia filling our stomachs. We had tasted too much bitterness on our tongues; our teeth were coated in it. We wanted peace, more than anything, our palates thirsted for it.
I hardly noticed Rush’s hands on my shoulders as my chin tilted up towards the darkening sky. When dark finally hit the horizon, we would move.
“This will work,” his voice invaded my ears.
“It will.”
He smiled at the confidence in my pitch. The strength of the people in front of us was enough to keep my hands from shaking, it steadied me, excited me.
The moment the sun dipped behind the trees, we began moving. It was approximately a thirty-minute walk through our territory to the edge of the humans. There were no other sounds apart from the crunching of brush underneath our shoes.
Jonah had suggested shifting to travel faster and appear more threatening, but I softly shook my head. This was not a show of brute animal power; this was humans understanding each other. Our hearts held the same amount of blood, our brains fired the same neurons, or hands both shook in the cold.
Our DNA was the only thing separating them from shifting into a werewolf and howling at the same moon we do.
The tree line broke faster than I thought it would, and we came to the back of the shop buildings. Rush cocked his head to the side, leading us through a small alleyway, one by one, funneling out into the street.
I glanced around the town; a quiet emptiness filled the spaces. The human houses were not far from the shops, and it would only take one person to see us for the entire town to gather in the street.
We waited patiently, observing the way the streetlights flickered every few moments. Eventually, there was the quiet clack of car doors opening and closing and the low thrum of engines. Vehicles pulled up, one right after the next, each driver seemed to pull out a shotgun as they exited.
Harrison stepped through the mass; his nephews trailed after him. I searched for Hazel in the large group of strangers.
“I thought I told you mongrels to stay the hell away from my family,” Harrison growled, walking forward. Most of our groups stayed behind, Rush, and I stepped forward to speak to Harrison.
“And that would have been fine if you didn’t poison our family,” Rush said, his eyes narrowing.
“Now, how am I supposed to control what other humans do? I have no control over them,” Harrison grunted. His grey, freckled beard twitched.
“You have control over what you do. You could have informed us, but you didn’t. You could have shut down the water pipes, but you didn’t. So, we’ve come here as one last outstretched hand.”
“And what are you offering?” He seemed disinterested but asked anyway.
“Amnesty for all past transgressions.” Harrison’s eyes glittered. “In exchange for a treaty.”
“A treaty?” He smiled patronizingly. “You think a lousy piece of paper is going to change anything?”
“No,” I said honestly. “But your word can. I’ve seen the way these people look up to you, the same way our pack members look up to us. Our word is law. It’s the same for you.”
“What makes you think we even want a treaty after your mangy mutts came into our town and killed our loved ones?”
“Those wolves were a byproduct of what you all created.” Rush’s hand clenched around mine, and my fingers tingled with numbness.
“Like I said.” Harrison smirked. “I didn’t have anything to do with that.”
“Do you want to damn treaty or not?” Rush shouted. The humans shuttered, looking back and forth between each other. Harrison paused and tilted his head.
“I think…not,” he settled.
“You would deny your family the right to choose?”
Harrison glared at me. “My family and I stand as one,” he snarled. “We will not submit to some deranged beast who wants to tear our flesh and gut us.”
“Is that what you think we want? Not peace, not friendship, not an end to this back and forth, but to tear open your stomachs and eat your organs?” I scoffed. “You’ve watched too many movies.”
“Enough,” Rush grunted. He looked past Harrison to the large group of humans behind him. “We are offering you peace, we want to cohabit
ate this land, and you choose to fight us instead?”
Harrison’s nephews jogged toward us, hands filled with knives and guns.
“It’s time for you to leave our territory,” the buck-toothed one said. His brother puffed his chest out and stood strong.
“Your family is going to die,” Rush warned, slowly stepping back. “Your wives, husbands, children, mothers, they’re going to die.”
“If it means ridding the world of your kind, then so be it.”
“Do you really fear us that much that you refuse to acknowledge any other idea other than your own?” I smiled sadly. “You fear what you don’t understand, but you don’t try to understand it; you just kill it before it can hurt you. We weren’t trying to hurt you, but if it comes to a choice between your family and ours…we will do everything it takes to protect ours.”
“I’m glad we share the same values, she-wolf,” the blond brother called. “But we were here first, and we don’t like to share what’s rightfully ours.”
We didn’t refute their words. We continued to walk back to our pack members. They waited expectantly for our orders.
“We’re going home,” Rush announced. “We’re going to rest, with our own family, and then we’re going to start training for the day we come back here.”
“That’s it?” a younger Warrior asked, testosterone and adrenaline filling his blood.
“That’s it?” I mocked. “We just declared war on a race, we just decided it was okay to kill people, children. That’s not nothing. Take a moment to realize what will happen before you act disappointed that we didn’t give the kill order right now. Everyone deserves the chance to have one more night, one more night with their family. If you think this won’t affect you, you’re wrong.”
I let go of Rush’s hand and walked through our pack to the young Warrior. He stood a foot taller than me, but his eyes held more fear.
“You are going to take a life. Someone will cease to exist because of you. You’re ending someone, and if that doesn’t affect you, then you haven’t really felt life.”
The Warrior gulped and looked down. I turned my head and looked at the rest of the Warriors, staring at the two of us.
“Sure, it might feel satisfying to kill the ones pointing guns at us, but will you feel that way when you kill someone innocent? You think every person in their army wants to be there? No. But this is their family. This is their pack. Before you do this, understand that every other Alpha and Luna are standing exactly where we are tonight, and I’m guessing they’re getting the same responses. They’ve made it clear that there is no possibility of surrender, they don’t want to live in peace, so it’s either them or us.
“We’re committing genocide. And despite our best and tireless efforts to remain peaceful and trusting, they’ve turned down every olive branch we offer. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t people. That doesn’t mean they don’t have hopes, dreams, families, passions, thoughts, and lives of their own. But our job is to protect this pack, this family, not theirs. So, if this is what it takes to secure our safety, then this is what we will do.
“It can wait one more night. It can wait for one more sleep, one more meal, one more bedtime story. One more time they make love to their mates, one more time they dream. Once more. And that’s it.”
Comatose
“Harder!” Casey bellowed in the ear of a Warrior. “You think one hit will bring a human down? They’re stronger than you think, fight harder!”
I strolled around the training grounds with a glass of iced tea in my hand, observing the tired Warriors practicing hand to hand combat. A smaller girl stood victoriously over her larger opponent until he grabbed her leg and pulled her down next to him.
“Never believe you’ve actually won,” I mused softly, filing it into memory.
“Sloane,” Casey greeted. “Any chance you’d like a friendly spar?”
“Against you? I’d have a better chance taking down a brick wall.” I snorted.
“Oh, come on, even if you aren’t fighting it will be good to have some tricks in your pocket.”
I unwillingly agreed, setting my glass on the ground a few feet away from us. Most of the other spars stopped and watched. My feet took a wide stance against Casey’s lunging frame. He smirked and whispered, “I won’t embarrass you.”
As he stepped forward, I sidestepped him with a quick turn. He turned to the right, hoping to catch me off guard, but I was prepared for him. My hand shot out, and I quickly and thumped the back of his head.
His eyes widened, and his mouth slightly parted, standing up straighter. His blonde hair was starting to fall out of the small ponytail that he had fashioned at the nape of his neck.
“You’re going to have to be quicker than that,” I teased.
He growled slightly, prepping to perform a larger, flashier move to impress the other wolves. Casey’s arms wrapped around my stomach and arms, holding my still and demonstrating to the other wolves how to keep me contained. With my detained hand, I reached to Casey’s exposed stomach and dug my finger into his side.
With one grunted laugh, his arms released me, and his body tensed. I stepped away long enough to see his frustrated face.
“What are you doing?” he ground out.
“Trying to prepare you.” I smiled innocently. “What if someone tickled you in the middle of hand to hand combat? I want you to be prepared!”
“You are not taking this seriously.” He shook his head, a dumb smile gracing his lips. He pushed my back. “Get out of here.”
“If I must,” I sighed dramatically, grabbing my glass of iced tea and continuing my walk towards the medical building. The receptionist smiled at me as I passed her on my voyage to Beckett’s room.
He was on the second floor, the ninth door to the left. I took my usual place in the chair to his left side and took his hand in both of mine.
“Hey Beck,” I said softly, running my thumbs over his skin. I closed my eyes and tried to force his healing like I had done the last four times I visited. Cherry had told me of the power Lunas held within themselves, but I hadn’t seen any changes despite my efforts.
I didn’t know if anything I did was helping him, but it didn’t seem to be hurting him all the same. I attempted to visualize his healing, but without knowing exactly where the virus affected him, it was nearly impossible to concentrate on one area of his body.
I sighed and leaned back in the chair. When I opened my eyes, I jumped a little at the silhouette of another person in the doorway.
“Sorry,” Kenna apologized half-heartedly. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I’ll come back later.”
“No,” I shouted desperately. She paused and turned a little towards me. “I mean, you don’t have to leave.”
She nodded cautiously and slowly walked into the room, taking the chair at the right side of Beckett’s bed. She glanced up at me through the corners of her eyes, barely making eye contact as she set her bag on the ground near her feet.
“Do you come here a lot?” I asked.
She pursed her lips, biting the bottom of one before she answered me. “Yeah,” she breathed. “Beckett was always a good friend to me even though he was closer to my brother.”
“Is,” I reminded her softly, smiling a little to try and prove I wasn’t being patronizing. “He’s not gone.”
“Yeah, I know,” she said bitterly. “Just feels that way.”
We sat in uncomfortable silence for the next ten minutes, looking at Beckett, but our eyes slowly drifted toward each other every so often.
“I’m sorry,” I eventually jutted out. The air around us tightened at the sudden intrusion of sound, and she looked at me, eyebrows tucked up in the corners. “I’m sorry for what happened and that I wasn’t there for you. Everything was just happening so quickly, and Rush decided that it was a great time to start talking about children-”
“You’re planning for a baby?” Her eyes sparkled.
I nodded. “Yeah, maybe when th
is whole thing is over.”
Her lips fought a smile, finger twitched. “I know it was unreasonable. I was emotional. It wasn’t your fault, Sloane.”
“That’s sweet of you to say, but that doesn’t excuse my actions.”
“No,” she agreed, melancholia stretching between us. “It doesn’t.”
“Hopefully, I can show you the kind of friend I can be.” I shrugged, looking down at Beckett’s olive hand in my paler one. “I really miss you, Ken.”
“Yeah,” she sighed. “I miss you, too.”
We stayed silent for the rest of our visit. She left before I did, and she parted with a gentle wave. I pressed a gentle kiss on Beckett’s hand, hoping that in some way, the small gesture would help him.
When I returned home, Rush was lying languidly sideways on our bed. I slid my shoes off in the pile that had accumulated by the door and jumped on the bed next to him. He jumped at the motion and shook the sleep out of his eyes.
“Sleepy?” I traced the curve of his temple.
“Yeah, I guess.” He leaned into my hand. “How’s Beckett?”
“The same.” I continued tracing. “But not any worse, so that’s good.”
“I suppose.” He turned and laid on the side of his body. His left arm reached out and grabbed onto my waist. I tucked myself down into the empty curvature of his chest and placed my head against his collarbone.
“The Warriors are training hard,” I mumbled against his warm skin, entirely captivated by the warmth of him.
“So is the rest of the pack,” he added. “They have different sessions of training since they’re not Warriors. They’re doing good. We’ll be fine.”
“That makes me happy,” I hummed.
“You make me happy,” he replied cheekily. I snorted. “I’m serious. You make me happier than I’ve ever been, even in the midst of a brooding war.”
“Well, I’m glad.” His fingers smoothed my hair back from my face and gently rubbed my shoulder. “Because you make me really happy, too. I can’t wait to start our family.”